Medicare Part B Discarded Drug Units
The Medicare Part B Discarded Drug Units dataset provides spending information on claims for Medicare Part B drugs that were identified as having discarded amounts of a drug.
Freshness
- Last posted
- Period covered
- Jan 1, 2023 to Dec 31, 2023
- Update frequency
- Annually
Dates as CMS lists them in its catalog.
Columns 8
| Column | What it means | Type |
|---|---|---|
Medicare Billing Code (HCPCS Code)HCPCS_Cd | Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code used to identify the drug furnished by the provider. | string |
Brand NameBrnd_Name | Name of the drug furnished by the provider. This includes both brand names (drugs that have a trademarked name) and generic names (drugs that do not have a trademarked name). | string |
Generic NameGnrc_Name | A term referring to the chemical ingredient of a drug rather than the trademarked brand name under which the drug is sold. | string |
Total Medicare Allowed AmountTot_Mdcr_Alowd_Amt | Total Medicare allowed amount for Part B Drug . Medicare allowed amounts includes the amount Medicare pays, the deductible and coinsurance amounts that the beneficiary is responsible for paying, and any amounts that a third party is responsible for paying. | number |
Total Allowed Amount for Units AdministeredTot_Mdcr_Alowd_Admnrd_Amt | Total Medicare allowed amount paid for the portion of the drug administered to the beneficiary. | number |
Total Allowed Amount for Units DiscardedTot_Mdcr_Alowd_Dscrd_Amt | Total Medicare allowed amount paid for portion of the drug NOT administered to the beneficiary. | number |
Administered Units as % of Total Allowed AmountPCT_Admnrd_Units | Percentage of total Medicare allowed amount that for the portion of the drug that was administered to a beneficiary. | number |
Discarded Units as % of Total Allowed AmountPCT_Dscrd_Units | Percentage of total Medicare allowed amount for a given drug that discarded and NOT administered. | number |
No column matches that filter.
At a glance
- Catalog
- data.cms.gov
- Publisher
- Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA)
- Rows
- 824
- Columns
- 8
- State column
- None found
API
Free, no key needed. This request returns the first 10 rows as JSON:
https://data.cms.gov/data-api/v1/dataset/09fd71b8-eb3e-45af-a01e-f8ab5a190e84/data?size=10
Versions 2
The newest version is the one linked above. Older releases stay on the official site.
- 2023-01-02posted Jun 25, 2026
- 2023-01-01posted May 29, 2025
CMS's description
The Medicare Part B Discarded Drug Units dataset provides spending information on claims for Medicare Part B drugs that were identified as having discarded amounts of a drug. As of January 1, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires all physicians, hospitals, and other providers submitting claims for Medicare Part B drugs to report any discarded amount of a single use vial or other single use package drug on its claim for payment. With the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021, manufacturers must pay a refund to Medicare for discarded amounts above a specified threshold effective for drugs furnished beginning with January 1, 2023. Starting in 2025, CMS began publishing public annual reports on the CMS Discarded Drugs page that include these refund amounts. These newly published reports reflect the actual discarded drug refunds paid by manufacturers and supersede the Medicare Part B Discarded Drug Units data previously available on this webpage.
Methodology and other documents from CMS:
The summary at the top is the first sentence of this description. Record id cms:09fd71b8-eb3e-45af-a01e-f8ab5a190e84. This record as JSON.